Creating a Plot and other Impossible Labours
by Kandros Fir
Summary: You thought Hercules had it tough? Pshaw, he's nothing compared to what us writers go through. And that is why I wrote this.
1. Plot

The plot is the how the main character resolves the central conflict of the story. But for there to be a plot there must be problems. An example of a problem can be that the gods have forgotten their oath to Percy and are not claiming their children.

Now that there is a problem the plot can be built. First of all, how should this problem be solved? An author should have this in mind before they begin writing. I am in favor of having a half blood be sent to Olympus to remind the gods of their promise.

Here is the basic structure of the plot- the journey of one half-blood to Olympus to remind the gods of their promise to claim their children. Now it is time to hammer out the details.

Who is going? Is it Percy? Should this even be set in Percy's lifetime or do you want it to be left up to some other demigod in the far future, perhaps a son of Athena? Why is this demigod chosen to go?

Also remember that one does not simply take an elevator to Olympus. The plot should be a little more complicated than that. Perhaps the main character discovers that the gods have vanished, kidnapped by some mysterious group. This raises what is at stake, always a plus for a story. It also builds on top of the initial conflict, thus creating the rising action of the story.

Now would be a good time to discuss subplots. The plot can't always be rushing forward to the conclusion of the story, sometimes characters need to take a breather after an especially eventful stretch. But writing this breather is boring. For example, if the main character is drinking tea, then simply writing about that is boring.

A writer could, however use this time to have the tea drinking bring back memories of time with his dad, who loved the stuff. This would advance the reader's understanding of the character and help them enjoy the story more.

And finally, it is time for the climax and falling action of the story. If the plot is structured properly, the rising action will smoothly build upon itself to perfectly flow into the climax, where the main conflict upon which the plot is built will be resolved. For example, the main character will discover that this mysterious organization is one made up of demigods who have discovered mithril, an item rarer than celestial bronze or imperial gold that can actually kill gods and allow the killer to take the gods place. Insert convenient plot explanation for why the gods aren't dead yet. Thus in the climax, the main character could be fighting the leader of this organization just before he stabs Zeus and during this epic duel, the antagonist could try and tempt the protagonist to join him. After he defeats the leader of the organization, the resolution could be the main character freeing the gods and the gods claiming all their children while the main character goes home covered in glory and lets go what ever negative feelings he may have towards the gods.

And with this you have a plot. Is it a good plot? Well that's up to you, the author to decide.

**AN: I didn't mean to offend anyone by writing this. There just seems to be a general lack of stories with a plot in this fandom . I know how hard writing can be and I wanted to help a little. I hope you guys don't think I'm pointing fingers or trying to force people to do it my way. And please note that this is a general guide and only meant to give you ideas.**


	2. Characters

A good plot, while important to a story, is useless without good characters. Now in fan fiction, this is especially difficult to accomplish considering the need to work off of someone else's characters and incorporate original characters into someone else's world, but it is not impossible.

To start off with, whenever you are writing a character you should critically look at their personalities, to see how they would react to the plot. For example, let us critically look at Annabeth.

We know that she is proud. Indeed it is her fatal flaw. This often leads to her bottling up her problems and keeping them to herself because she believes that only she can solve that particular problem and no one else could possibly help. We also know that though she is proud, she does allow a few people who have earned her trust to help Percy being one of them.

Annabeth is extremely intelligent and analytical; she leads through carefully thought out plans and stratagems, which meshes well with Percy's instinctive style of leadership. And unlike Percy, she does not make friends easily or let herself care for people easily. How could she, her father essentially rejected her until she was a teen and Luke, the first person she really trusted stabbed her in the back. So don't expect her to like everybody.

She doesn't suffer fools gladly, and if you want her to be friendly with you then prove you're not an idiot. I know Percy seems stupid at times, but he really isn't, he's just not book smart per se. She is also a hard worker willing to put in a lot of time and effort for the things she wants, like architecture. There is more to her but I hope I have covered the major bases.

Where you want to go from there is completely up to you, I'm not here to tell you what to do.

Now a look at original characters; to begin looking at an OC we must first consider at their background. For example, Mohammed Abadi, an immigrant from the United Arab Emirates, moved to the U.S when he was one. He had a tough time making friends in school, not only because he was dyslexic and had ADHD but also because he is an Arab and a Muslim after 9/11. This unwelcome attitude towards his race and religion has created a sort of identity crisis in our character, unsure of whether he would be happier embracing the fact he is American wholeheartedly and forgetting his roots in order to be liked, or sticking to others of his kind who do not accept him either because of his disabilities. This crisis is deepened with the revelation that he is a half blood and will ultimately be plot point that the character will have to deal with throughout the story.

Another thing you can focus on is faith. Abadi is a Muslim, meaning he is a monotheist. How will he accept the fact that he lives in a world with many deities. Can he reconcile his faith with his new understanding of the universe? Again this is just an example, go create a character of your own.


	3. Details and Grammer

Creating good plots and good characters require grounding them in reality which generally means details. A good way to do this is to look at your sentences and see where you can be more specific and descriptive.

For example: The man picked at his food. It is a pretty standard sentence. Now, who is the man- Barak Obama, a police man, a singer, an alien? No, he is our main character, Mohammed! Now where is this taking place- in a café, a diner, a family restaurant? If you chose a café you are much too good with this. What are we referring to when we say food- tea and croissants, nachos, pizza? Let's go with the tea and croissants shall we, its weird entering a café and not having anything caffeine related. And finally how does he pick at his food? Why rather dispiritedly I should say.

Here is our new and improved sentence:

Mohammed picked at his tea and croissants dispiritedly in the café.

This sentence is a little more descriptive and gives a much better picture than just, the man picks at his food.

Grammer:

I didn't give this a chapter of its own because I don't have that much to say about it. But here is what I have to say about it. Please, please, please use proper grammer. I am on my knees begging. It offends my eyes to try and decipher a story of meaningless gibberish. I don't expect impeccable grammer, that'd make me a hypocrite, but I do expect to be able to understand what the author is trying to say. I give even the worst stories I've ever read a passing grade if I can at least read them. There are three trends in fanfictions with bad grammer that drive me insane- the lack of paragraphing especially with quotes and misspelling of basic words like you and the lack of capitalization of letters. The first word of every sentence must be capitalized! I even used multiple exclamation points.

You know, this:

"Couldn't you have used the front door?"

"What's the fun in fighting monsters if you're not allowed to cause unholy amounts of property damage along the way?"

"I'm only worried that that man's insurance doesn't cover acts of demigods."

"That was a truly terrible pun."

"I'm working on it."

Not this:

"codn't u use the frnt dore?" "Wat's the fun in fiting monters if u no alowd to coz much damage" "I'm only worreed that the man's insurince doesnt cover acts of demeegodz." "that waz a terible pun." "I'm workin onnit."

This is probably an exaggeration but you get what I mean. Man I hope you all don't lose as many brain cells reading it as I did writing it.


End file.
